The Sockman’s Toe

There are no ‘keep off the statue’ notices on The Sockman in Loughborough town centre.
People rub his toe for good luck.

I don’t think it works but just like my mum I always do it.

Others sit their children on Sockman’s outstretched stockinged leg.

His other foot is bare. One sock on one sock off. The statue is by Shona Kinloch and when commissioned and unveiled the press printed comments from outraged councillors and a few members of the public. They were wrong in their protestations. People in general love him.

a toe in the hand
or coins in a fountain
good luck hunting

Paul Conneally
January 2019

Involuntary Painting 1 New Parks : New York Installation

February 3rd 2016 - the official opening of Involuntary Painting 1 New Parks : New York, a public art work conceived by Artists Millree Hughes and Paul Conneally and incorporated into the fabric of New Parks Centre Library, Leicester.

The work was made with members of the Creative New Parks group with input from artists in New York, with and for SoftTouch Arts Leicester City Council Libraries and Arts Council England.

This photograph shows one element of the work, a kerb and tyre mark on St Oswald Road, opposite the library and seen in this photograph through the library window, identified and photographed in series as an involuntary painting by local resident Colin Murphy with Conneally and now applied to the windows of the library itself.

This is just one element of the whole IP1NPNY installation which can be viewed and occupied daily (except Sundays) from today onwards at New Parks Library which is itself part of the work.

Compression de Porsche' CÉSAR 1990

'Compression de Porsche' CÉSAR 1990
Photo: Paul Conneally, Mougins 2015

Le Banc Des Gênérations' Niki De Saint-Phalle 2002

'Le Banc Des Gênérations' Niki De Saint-Phalle 2002

Mougins, France, 2015

Photo: Paul Conneally

http://nikidesaintphalle.org

INVIGILATOR : DIGBETH

Thinking back to 'Invigilator : DIGBETH' discussions I am struck by oblique and direct references to boredom - the gallery invigilators job being referred to as sometimes boring.

When transposed to an outside space where the invigilator has to stand or sit and simply ‘watch over’ then the space and the action of simply watching over it sets up an interaction that is boring in such a way that it can transcend boredom if we let it… The space becoming bored of the invigilator throws up new facets new resonances between it and the 'watcher over’ the 'invigilator’ A couple of Invigilator:Digbeth participants said that they found the invigilating very zen like - another not at all - the invigilating passed-by with a contrived doing - a counting of and classification of vehicles passing through the invigilated space. Such actions are invoked by the space itself as it is watched over - after all it was only chance that the space invigilated happened to have cars passing through it - this counting this classifying borne out of the possibility of boredom.

“INVITE BOREDOM” - paul conneally 2008

HELTER SKELTER - A Proposal To Alter Carillon Tower

HELTER SKELTER - Paul Conneally 1999

HELTER SKELTER is a splacist art work from 1999 where I faxed Charnwood Borough Council's Director of Planning and Technical Services, Jonathan Hale, a proposal to form a Helter Skelter for peace around Loughborough's famous Carillon Tower war Memorial.

The intervention was based around the fact that all planning proposals have to be responded to by the council. The piece generated several press reports and a number of responses from the public. Contrary to Jonathan Hale's view that the public might find it controversial and be against it many were broadly in favour of it, at least as an idea. The official Carillon player, who fisted out songs from the shows and such on the Carillon keyboard in among the bells at the top of the tower, told Loughborough Echo that it was a fun idea, the bells playing as Loughbohemians slid down the helter skelter in the name of peace and in memory of those who died in the First World War.

I'm now revisiting engagement with Loughborough's Carillon Tower, an amazing building and now on all the signs heralding entry to Loughborough by road. Watch this splace!

Extract from The Splacist Manifesto:

We will own this city.
We will take it back.
We will link and shift; across time, space, people, places and processes
We will weave throughout the fabric of people’s lives.
We will unpick it.

We will affect and be affected.
We will glory in the moment, the collage, the marking and then passing on.

We reject your shopping centre, your pavement, your cultural quarter;
We will undermine pre-defined spaces. We reject them.

We will reclaim the city, not for you, but with you.
We are you.

Splacism is a contemporary mode of practice proposed by Paul Conneally. A new set of ideologies defined by Hannah Nicklin and Nikki Pugh. A hop, skip and a jump away from phsychogeography and the works of the situationist international. Think space, place and splice. Developed empirically by whoever’s interested.

Paul Conneally
May 24 2015

Loughborough Carillon:


Loughborough Carillon Tower War Memorial, Paul Conneally, 2015

Trees Spreading Their Arms

Two women sit on one of the water drop shaped metal benches in Thurmaston made by sculptor Richard Thornton with a haiku fragment written during the Charnwood Arts project The Sound Of Water workshops that I led with massive support from Jemma Bagley. The words we decided upon are laser cut into the bench, in fact they are cut out of the bench.

The words that these young Muslim women sit on are 'trees spreading their arms'. I'd like to feel that our communities across Charnwood are like these trees, spreading their arms to welcome new members into them, wherever they are from.



Paul Conneally
April 2015

Changing Landscapes - Walk the Line - Kings Norton

Changing Landscapes

This video shows people of Kings Norton 3 Estates taking part in Changing Landscapes 'Walk the Line' a Public Artwork comissioned by Birmingham City Council.

Artist Maurice Maguire with Rob Colbourne surveyed the route of the Wast Hill canal tunnel that passes under the Kings Norton 3 Estates Birmingham UK and marked it with blue on the surface. Residents were then invited to meet and join Maurice, Rob, Paul Conneally, Rob Hewitt and others to 'walk the line'.

During the walk participants were encoraged to engage with their surroundings and the canal below them via short talks from Maurice Maguire that gave an insight on the history and importance of the canal tunnel below the estate on the landscape and spaces of the 3 Estaes today. Paul Conneally introduced walkers to haikai ways of seeing everyday things, writing haiku and sharing them back with others in the Kings 3 Cafe after the walk.

Changing Landscapes is an artist led project conceived by Maurice Maguire 
Changing Landscapes is curated by Maurice Maguire and Rob Hewitt.

Video and images: Paul Conneally
Music: Walk the Line - Johnny Cash

Concrete Mining Helmets

Concrete Mining Helmets - Snibston Discovery Museum

Photo: Paul Conneally 2014

Longer Shadows - Loughborough

longer shadows 

a sign in the park that says 

don't feed the pigeons 

Paul Conneally

Loughborough 2013

THE FUNCTION OF ART AND FISH AND CHIPS @eprjcts @littleonion

Artists Gavin Wade and Paul Conneally contemplate the function of art and fish and chips in the Bath Inn Nottingham.

Fajitas In A Teepee

Fajitas In A Teepee
Paul Conneally September 11 2010
Intervention renga with Watermead Estate community Thurmaston, Leicestershire.
Co-ordinated by artist Jemma Bagley for Charnwood Arts
Music: Judge Smut Dub by Dum Dum Dum 1979
Paul Conneally and Jemma Bagley return to Thurmaston revisiting the site that originally led to "The Sound Of Water" a psychogeographic / splacist exploration of Thurmaston, in the Borough of Charnwood, Leicestershire through a series of haiku walks, workshops and interventions with people that live and / or work in the area.
The Sound of Water was a piece of public art originally coming out of a Section 106 planning requirement for public art as part of the development of the old Merrimans site next to the A46 in Thurmaston into the new 'Watermead' housing estate. Conneally and Bagley were commissioned through Charnwood arts via Charnwood Borough Council to work with "community groups" to produce haiku like texts that could be incorporated into metal works of art by Richard Thornton in the new housing development.
Conneally and Bagley decided to approach the Thurmaston Action Group, that was actively campaigning against the 'Watermead' development, rather than just go straight into a school (which they did later) or such to generate textual material. The developers were not told that the group working with the artists to put texts into the new site were actively opposed to and campainging against the development. Approached by the BBC to talk about the project Conneally felt he would get a better understanding of what he was actually doing by asking one of the action group to speak, alongside Bagley, instead of himself and the interview itself became part of the piece: Sound of Water Interview

Fajitas In A Teepee sees the artists returning to the now complete new development and working with the new residents during an afternoon that was intended to bring the new community together. Fajitas In A Teepee is an "intervention renga" - non of the praticipants set out to write a renga - they were randomly approached by Conneally (Little Onion) in roving renga master mode to link with and shift away from the previously written verse as the renga built up on recycled cardboard around the playground in the centre of the estate. The artists took time to engage with and discuss resident and workers feelings about living and working in and around the new Watermead development including how the design and build elements affected their mood and style of living.
The video of the boards that were written in situ and attached to the wooden fence around the playground are not the finished piece. The piece was and is the interactions in and with the space and the people on the day.
We exchange places with spaces and in doing so both are changed.